Oral history interview with Dore Ashton, 2010 Nov. 21
Ashton, Dore,
b. 1928
Educator, Architectural historian
New York, N.Y.
Size: Sound recording, master: 2 memory cards (2 hr., 57 min.) secure digital, wav 1.25 in.
Collection Summary: An interview of Dore Ashton conducted 2010 Nov. 21, by George W. Sampson, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project, at Ashton's home, in New York, N.Y.
Ashton talks about growing up politically active; protesting the internment of the Japanese during WWII; attending The New School and then Harvard University; briefly working as a gallery receptionist; writing her first reviews for Art Digest; Howard Devree hiring her as a writer for The New York Times; travels and living in Europe; writing feature pieces about individual artists for The New York Times; writing for Cahiers d'art; her relationships Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, Billy Kluver, Robert Rauschenberg, Octavio Paz, and others; marriage to Adja Yunkers; teaching at Cooper Union; interest in Latin American Art; flirting; being a "dedicated reader of Nietzsche"; visits to the Cedar Tavern; being a peacenik; and other topics. She recalls Jeanne Reynal, Mario Pedrosa, Alger Hiss, Peter Selz, Peter Orlovsky, David Smith, and others.
Biographical/Historical Note: Dore Ashton (1928-) is an art historian in New York, N.Y. George W. Sampson (1951-) is an arts administrator in Charlottesville, V.A.
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
This interview is part of the Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project, funded by a grant from the A G Foundation.
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